Sheldon, Iowa — Rob Roozeboom, the founder and president of Rise Ministries has announced that the organization’s annual Christian music festival, RiseFest, has been postponed until 2021.
Roozeboom says the decision to cancel the festival was one of the hardest he and the RiseFest Board have ever had to make.
(As above) “It is one of the hardest decisions we’ve had to make in a long time. We have agonized over it, we have been in meetings and conversations….trying to put COVID Task Force teams together, and at the end of the day it is looking like the best option is to postpone (the festival) until 2021.”
He says that sometimes you have to treat it like a football game, and punt.
(As above) “The reason it’s so difficult is our area is so resilient, our team is so resilient. I had to tell them the other night that we have to postpone…the Board feels it’s in our best interest. With so many unknowns, it just makes sense to postpone until 2021. I said, ‘but for the first time, we as a team, have to punt.’ And I said, ‘it’s tough….it’s really tough. We’ve never had to punt before, but for the first time we need to, however, in the game of football, every now and again you’ve got to punt, regroup and get ready to go again, and that’s kind of what we’re up against.”
Roozeboom says there are just too many unknowns for the festival to go on.
(As above) “There are too many unknowns, and RiseFest is about blessing the area and the community, and if we feel that we’re going to hurt that a little bit then we really don’t want to do that. There’s the financial risk side of stuff, there’s obviously the COVID risk side of stuff, and the idea of being able to do the festival the way that we usually do and to deliver it to festival-goers the way that way that we try so hard each and every year to do it….it just wasn’t going to work this year.”
He says if you have already purchased tickets for RiseFest 2020 those tickets will rollover and be honored at the 2021 festival. He says there are other options, as well, for those who have purchased their tickets. For more information, Roozeboom says you can contact Rise Ministries at 712-324-9763, or visit riseministries.com.
RiseFest 2020 was originally scheduled for Father’s Day weekend, June 19th and 20th, but earlier this spring was rescheduled for Labor Day weekend due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was announced Thursday morning (July 16th) that RiseFest 2020 has been cancelled.
